Ebola: Ending stigma - The story of an Ebola fighter

“My wife and I live a lonely life. Our neighbours have barred their children from playing with our children - our home is a ‘no go zone’ for them. Some of them have gone as far as suspending speech with me and my wife.

We’ve been isolated because we are both health workers. I work as a physician’s assistant at Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s ELWA 3 Ebola Management Centre in Paynesville, and my wife works at the John F. Kennedy Hospital as a midwife.

People accused us of being carriers of the disease. If we fall victim, will they rejoice and be happy we’re dead and gone?

Caitlin Ryan/MSF

The staff of ELWA 3 Ebola Management Centre in Monrovia say "Thank you" in 20 different languages for the support they have received from around the world.

Mistakes are not permissible

I lost my niece and my cousin to Ebola in July last year. But that did not discourage me from volunteering for MSF to combat the virus in Liberia over the past five months.

I felt the urge as a trained physician assistant to save the vulnerable lives that have been struck. The task has not been easy.

In this battle, one must always keep on the safe side or risk joining the victims. We’re not fighting Ebola blindly. We’re fighting it with our conscious minds. Safety on the frontline depends on your carefulness and straight adherence to protocols.

Mistakes are not permissible here. You constantly have to remind yourself of the things you’re taught to do in order to not get infected through touching an infected person or object.

An unfair punishment

My family understands what I’m doing and supports me. Still some of our neighbours and friends do not get this. They ostracise us. It sometimes makes me wonder whether I am working for or against society.

Every day spent at the Ebola management centre has been heartrending. One moment a patient survives and you celebrate and then in a split second, you see another patient whom you talked to over a couple of hours ago wrapped in body bag.

You finish your day emotionally devastated and psychologically traumatised. And when you return home hoping to have some gentle conversations with your neighbours and relax your mind with friends, they give you the cold-shoulder instead.

This feels like an unfair punishment. The people whom we work for don’t appreciate us. I am actually looking forward to the day some of the patients I cared for will thank me for helping to save their lives.

Morgana Wingard

From Monrovia, Jackson addresses UN security council members in New York, via video link, who later unanimously vote through an emergency resolution on the Ebola outbreak. September 2014.

We have hope

A few colleagues have left their job because of stigma. But I take this as a challenge.

We cannot abandon the treatment centres. There’ll be no one to care for patients if we do. It’s our responsibility.

We have hope, we are proud and above all, we will remain very careful.”

Before joining MSF’s Ebola Emergency mission in Liberia in August last year, Jackson K.P. Naimah worked as a vaccine officer in Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.